I've never been to Edinburgh, Paw, although I was in Glasgow for a day a couple of years ago when I had a nostalgic week in Ayr. As I recall, I bought a couple of shirts there, and by strategic use of what seemed to be a circular underground system I visited several secondhand bookshops in what I was told was the student district. It's obviously good to know that Turner has not been deterred from crossing the border. I made my first acquaintance with him because I wanted to see close up his painting The Fighting Temeraire, which is the title of a serial in The Wizard in 1940. Consequently, from an acorn an oak tree grew because I've since been to a second exhibition of his work, in the Tate Britain if I remember correctly. One painting that I find eternally fascinating is Raphael's The Madonna Of The Pinks, especially the ribbon in her hair because I cannot figure out how he painted it so realistically. On a later visit I went just to see that one painting again. It cost the National Gallery £20 million. The print I bought there cost me £20, and I paid a local firm roughly the same amount to have it framed. It is on my dining room wall so I can be amazed at the painter's skill as often as I like now.paw broon wrote:As you enjoy Turner, I hope you'll make the trip to Edinburgh in January for the annual exhibition at the National Gallery on The Mound.
On balance, unfortunately I think it unlikely that I will attend the exhibition you refer to, mainly because whenever I feel the need of a temporary flit from my house I tend to go in the opposite direction. Regrettably too, the exhibition of portraits by Goya at the National Gallery closes on 10 January, which is a bit too soon for my next visit to London.